The No. 25 NC State men’s tennis team made it as far as the semifinals before being eliminated at the ACC Championships in Rome, Georgia.
The Wolfpack (11-8, 7-3 ACC) earned a double-bye as the No. 4 seed and beat Florida State 4-1 in the quarterfinals before getting swept 4-0 by No. 6 Virginia in the semifinals.
In the quarterfinals on Friday, April 23, the Pack was pitted against the 12th-seeded Florida State Seminoles, who had swept the No. 13 seed Boston College Eagles 4-0 on the first day of the tournament and upset the No. 5 seed Notre Dame 4-3 in the second round.
The Pack earned the doubles point to begin the match as senior Tadas Babelis and junior Yannai Barkai won 6-3 and sophomore Robin Catry and fifth-year Alexis Galarneau won 6-1. Seniors Robert Turzak and Collin Shick were up 4-2 when play was stopped.
In singles, Barkai was the first to the finish line with a 6-3, 6-0 win and was soon followed by Catry with a 7-5, 6-2 win to put the Pack up 3-0 and one point away from advancing to the semifinals. The Noles got the next point as junior Rafa Izquierdo Luque fell 4-6, 4-6, but Galarneau soon won his match 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to give the Pack a 4-1 win.
In the semifinals, the Pack was matched up against the No. 1 seeded Virginia Cavaliers, who had barely advanced the previous day with a 4-3 win over the No. 8 seed Georgia Tech.
The Cavaliers took the doubles point to begin the match as Babelis and Barkai fell 6-1 and Catry and Galarneau fell 6-3. Turzak and Shick were in a 5-5 tie when play was stopped.
The Cavaliers again made quick work of the Pack in the singles round as Izquierdo Luque, Barkai and Catry each fell in straight sets, giving the Cavaliers a clean 4-0 sweep and eliminating the Pack.
This was the second straight ACC Championship in which the Pack made it as far as the semifinals. In 2019, it was Wake Forest that eliminated the Pack in the semifinals.
The Pack will now wait and see who and when it will play in the NCAA Championships. The selection show will be live streamed on NCAA.com Monday, May 3, and the tournament will be held May 16-28 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
